Christmas Letter

Dear Reader,

Merry Christmas!

How time flies so quickly! It's been over a month since we've last talked; I must admit, life overtook my desire to blog the last couple of weeks. But I miss talking to you, I miss sharing my thoughts, I miss being encouraged by your comments.

I'm writing this with one hand at the moment, because my left hand is a bit out of action. A broken Metacarpal (the thumb bone) means a cast for 6 weeks, all through my precious holidays! God is teaching me patience, dependance on him, and a whole lot more, as I have suddenly got a whole lot more time to spend with him, reading his word and praying.

It is also really annoying though. I planned to have a massive "holiday cleaning" of my room, do lots of study, write a lot, read a lot. Now knowing it will take 2 -3 times longer than usual, I just don't want to do anything! Just sleep and watch movies. 

It's still early stages in recovery (I broke the bone two days ago) so I know there will be even more negatives to come!

I just want to cry!

But then I laugh. Because in all things God is good, he gives me good things, and he teaches me good things.

So Merry Christmas whatever your circumstances. Remember with me that it is a time where we celebrate God initiating his amazing salvation plan that we needed so much!

In Christ,
Tree

Sunburn

Often people associate God with light, and use the sun to illustrate how he illuminates the world with his glory (It's a good pun on Jesus as the "son/sun" too). But, I just wanted to ask, what about sunburn?

There are other things in nature that are good, but have negative effects on our lives too. Rain helps plants grow, but it's annoying when your iPod gets wet. All animals are God's creation, but I don't want to risk my life trying to befriend a lion. Volcanoes help nurture the soil, floods help spread nutrients across the land, and some plants need the heat from bushfires to survive, but all these events do serious damage to human lives.

I've probably got you thinking, but in reality, I can't offer you any answers to these problems. I just got home today, sunburnt, and wondered, "Why am I in pain from God's blessings?".

I've been blessed enough to have suffered little so far in my life, which puts me in a tricky situation when trying to explore what it means to suffer from God's creation. I'm sunburnt, but there are people out there who have lost houses, lost lives, lost everything because of nature.

You might have noticed, but when I don't understand something, or feel I'm out of my depth, I go back to the simple things. I don't know the answers, but what I do know is this.

Jesus said, "God blesses those who grieve, for they shall be comforted."

Jesus acknowledges that people will suffer, but he blesses them, he is with them, and no matter how long it takes, even if it may not be during their life on earth, he will make sure they are comforted. Isn't that an encouraging thought?

Family

Colossians 3. A great passage I read with my friend the other day. The first half is great, but for us, the Holy Spirit engrossed us in the back half.

Firstly, verses 18 to 21. "It's just a bunch of stuff to do!" you say. "Nothing encouraging in there" you say. Well, I see it differently. Let's take a closer look at verse 20.

"Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord."

Look! The first word. "Children". Paul is talking to me! He is talking directly to the kids in the Colossian church. The whole sequence, "Wives" , "Husbands" , "Children" , "Fathers" is one of a family unit. I think that is just great.

Great, because church, even at its beginnings was a family affair. All over the New Testament it talks of the gathering together of Christians. Brothers and sisters, united in Christ. I took that as an only spiritual familyhood until now. Christians are attending church as a family; encouraging, inspiring, and challenging each other. I've been learning that God's love breaks barriers, and this is another example. Imagine a non-Christian household where a younger brother can rebuke his older brother! Very rare. But in a Christian church, that is what we are called to do.

Now, if you look at what he says to each of the groups, you notice another great thing. His words are different for each member. Reading behind the lines you see that Paul is recognising the different roles we have in our family unit. Paul could have just said, "Christian families, love each other" and leave us to figure out how, but he doesn't. By being specific, he is making a statement that family members are complementary, and that our differences are part of God's plan.

My friend and I spent over 20 minutes on those 4 verses, but I'm glad we did. It showed me how families are another one of God's gifts that I would never have thought to ask for, but am blessed with anyway.

To end with, Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters". I'm sure I can let you discover the riches in that verses for yourself. So dig in!

Growth

Q. How have you grown in faith in the past year?

A. You can see my growth in my posts I put up here. I've grown in my love for God.

Q. How have you grown in faith in the past month?

A. You can see here and here, the things I've learnt in the past month, which have kept me growing.

Q. How have you grown in faith in the past week?

A. Um... 

I was asked to answer these questions in a conversation recently, and the last question caught me off guard. I was tempted to say, "I was busy", or "It wasn't a priority" but I knew such excuses couldn't cut it. I had 'paused' my growth during the week.

You could argue that I've been growing enough lately, or if it's only for a week then it's fine, but that wouldn't be true. I am a tree, and I want to continue growing, even if it is by a little bit at a time. I never want to 'pause' growth in my love for Jesus.

A short post today, but only because I feel some other things I want to say need their own post to develop fully. So get excited for next week!

So, what will you do to grow in faith this week?

Faults

A great way to get to know someone is for them to share their faults with you. Because so often, we see people's highlight reels, and compare them with our own unedited mess of a life. This stunts mutual encouragement and friendship. As Christians especially, since we know we are forgiven, our problems are a testament to God's amazing grace! So today I want to share some of my own faults with you.

A little humorous perhaps, but I have a problem with fiddling. I can't stop myself shifting/moving wherever I am. Even now my leg is shaking constantly as I sit at my computer and type away. My hands need to have something to play with. You can laugh, but if my family is anything to go by, it is quite an annoying habit to endure for so long. And it get can have serious consequences. Like when my mind felt like "fiddling" with a fire by throwing in a deodorant can. Luckily no one was hurt.

More widespread, and perhaps more acceptable is my fault of lying. I will lie for no reason. Often justified with a weak paranoia that if I tell the truth, it won't be accepted and will cause a hassle. It seems a defence for self-consciousness but it just erodes away the trust built around my life. I wish that someday I can start a sentence with "On my word" and be trusted because I never lie.

To top it off, like a cherry on top, is my arrogance. It's a trait that is hard to talk about, because I fear I'll be arrogant about my arrogance. It rarely gets rebuked by my friends or family because of its subtlety, but sometimes it's scent becomes a stench that I am ashamed of. It leads me to disregard the skills and blessings God has given me, attributing them to myself. It leads me to judge/put down/insult others that I should be loving instead.

So there you have it. Three of my many many negative traits that create disharmony with others and with God.

The great thing is, other people might reject me, but God won't turn his back on me, God won't severe the relationship, he'll pick up my life and slowly put back the pieces he originally created, until they become the perfect being they were meant to be. Without sin, without fault.

Blackout

The past few weeks have been unusually quiet. Although I continued hearing the noise and music of society, in one area it was blacked out from me. Society online.

I made a pact with myself not to go on any form of social networking for 2 weeks. A seemingly impossible promise to keep, but as the days went on, it became easier and easier as I slowly grew out of my addiction for online communication. It went so well, and the benefits so outweighed the sacrifice (if there was any), that only now have I gradually returned to my normal level of internet usage.

The best way to explain my experience would be to compare it with new strings on a guitar. When you play guitar, the strings gradually get rusty in small increments that you don't notice. Then you realise you haven't changed the strings for 6 months. You spend 30 minutes equipping new strings, and your fingers instantly feel the difference. Every single note is easier to hit, every sound is more perfect, every melody rings truer than before. It's like that online. You don't notice the time you waste, the drag it has on life, until you change it up a bit.

The internet has obvious advantages for relationships. I can connect with my friends in Japan instantly, it keeps me organised with events and birthdays, and it can be a starting point for discussion amongst friends. But, if I'm spending over 2 hours a day, looking at a screen that is ultimately comprised of 0's and 1's? That's never helpful.

I was challenged to turn off online for a while, and I encourage you to do so too. God gave us so much more than just the internet, and it's about time we appreciated his other gifts. 

Plus, it gives you a fail proof excuse in this connected world.

Your time starts now

This isn't a timed post or anything (but I do want to go to sleep soon...), I just wanted to explore the conversation idea I latched on to my post last week.

Often my blog posts occur from conversations with myself, in my head. It might be a sign of craziness, but it gets me thinking from different viewpoints, smashing around different ideas in my head, tumbling them together until they form some sort of writable clump of information. Often theres a lot of ideas from the bible (from talks and such) that gets mixed in to the bundle which always gives my thoughts some direction on what's right and wrong.

This time, hopefully we can bring that fictional conversation from in my head into real life. Well, online is close enough to real life...

We'll have a bit from the bible to start us off, so God is the centre, and then feel free to comment your thoughts on the passage or any other ways God has made you think the past few weeks. It can be one line, or it could be an essay (maybe not...) but have a go. God is good, so I hope this discussion will work in the first place, and be encouraging to all those who participate.

Here we go!

"For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Romans 12:4-5

What are your thoughts? Please take a moment to share, and come back to see what others think!